Manufacture under sales tax law requires a new and different article; timber conversion alone does not qualify.

Under sales tax law, a forest contractor who cuts standing trees and converts logs into planks, rafters or firewood is not treated as a manufacturer unless the process creates a new and different article with a distinct name, character or use. Mere cutting, sawing or shaping timber into other forms is only a change in form, not manufacture. The earlier contrary single-judge view was not accepted, and the activity was treated as outside the concept of manufacturing dealer.

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Issues: Whether a forest contractor who cuts standing trees, converts the logs into planks, rafters and firewood, and sells the resulting goods is a "manufacturer" for the purposes of the sales tax law.

Analysis: The controlling test is whether the activity brings into existence a new and different article having a distinctive name, character or use, since mere change or processing is not enough to amount to manufacture. Applying that test, the conversion of logs into planks, rafters or firewood was held not to create a new substance or commodity, but only to alter the form of timber. The contrary view expressed in an earlier single-judge decision was not accepted.

Conclusion: The activity did not amount to manufacture, and the petitioner-firm was not a manufacturing dealer; the question was answered in the negative, in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: Manufacture requires transformation into a new and different article with a distinctive name, character or use; mere cutting, sawing, or shaping of timber into different forms does not by itself constitute manufacture.

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